A David and Goliath-type battle erupted this weekend when the public realized that Facebook had changed the rules governing their use of the popular social networking site. In the end, the users prevailed in a victory that reflects the power of social networking as a tool for change.
The controversy began on Sunday, when the blog Consumerist pointed out that Facebook’s terms of use, which had permitted users to remove their content from the site at any time, had been modified to give Facebook the right to use content indefinitely, subject to privacy settings.

“We are storing up trouble as we surf the web, signing up for services, offering our personal details, clicking through on contracts without reading them and generally acting as if nothing can go wrong”

I’ve just come off the phone with Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, who has been explaining a little more about the changes taking place at the social network, which are designed to “democratise” how the website behaves and operates in the future.
“Openness”, “transparency” and “dialogue” were the three words he used more than any other in the course of my five-minute slot with him.
Facebook has responded quickly and boldly to what Zuckerberg himself called a “firestorm” from users after the firm had made changes to its terms of services without informing any of its users.
“We should have been communicating more broadly. Being as transparent as possible is a really valuable thing,” said Mr Zuckerberg in relation to that recent controversy. “We made a few mistakes,” he admitted.

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Daniel works at @hivosorg on Open Contracting, transparency, accountability, opengovernment, open data and civic tech to empower citizens and human right defenders.